How to safely make hornwort snail-free?

My small 5g betta tank is filled with ramshorn snail and malaysian trumpet snail. You can say the tank is extremely crowded of snails. But that's not the problem. I am planning to entirely scrap off everything from the tank after winter and fill it with new substrate, driftwood, caves and everything. I am planning to keep only a few ramshorn snails as I find them cute. So if anyone can advise me how to keep like 5-6 ramshorn snails without making them overpopulate my tanks, then it is welcome.

Now coming back to my present problem. This tank also has a ton of hornwort that I like to introduce to my main 28g tank. That tank has no snails and I would like to keep it that way. I have previously tried twice to introduce the hornwort in my main tank from the betta tank. I place the hornwort in a plastic bowl and add alum to it and leave it for 12-14 hrs. Then I completely rinse them and introduce them to my new tank. Now the threads of the plant comes off a lot in the process making the plant almost bare. Anyway then as I introduce them to my tank, they die after few days. Lighting, plant nutrients is not the issue as the tank has several other plant species than are thriving. Yes, none of the plants are high maintenance like dwarf lilly plants, java moss, cabomba, cryptocoryne and 1 other plant whose name I don't know. Hornwort is also not a demanding plant, even less low maintenance plant than them. Also this tank used to have hornwort once but all of my plants of this aquarium died when lockdown started and delivery services were also suspended as my light of this aquarium stopped working suddenly during that time and I couldn't buy any for days. So I think the amount of alum I am using and the time duration might be the problem. Or is it the case that hornwort doesn't survive alum at all? Anyway, if hornwort can survive alum, then how much alum to use and for what duration so that my plant can survive? But it has to be certain that they won't contain any baby snails or eggs.
There is no alum powder available where I live, so I have them in their raw state in big chunks. I crush them in smaller chunks and then put in water.

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

I'll see what concerns I can address, as there's a lot here:

Keeping 5-6 ramshorns only is impossible. Well, perhaps not impossible, just VERY challenging and time consuming. It would involve searching the entire tank for eggs every week and discarding them. Ramshorns will reproduce - period. If you like having a few, then keep some in the tank, reduce your feeding, and remove excess snails whenever you feel there are too many.

Hornwort isn't as bulletproof as some people might have you believe. I've seen it explode in some tanks, curl up and die in others, and shed their leaves EVERYWHERE in other tanks. It might have something to do with your water's hardness, available nutrients, or a variety of other factors. I couldn't keep it alive in my own tank, so I threw a dying stem into the goldfish tank at work, where it has been extremely successful. So for some settings, it is absolutely an easy plant. In others, it can be a significant challenge.

As for alum dosing for hornwort specifically, I'm really not certain. What might work best it to set up a bowl/bucket with your hornwort, and feed it an algae wafer every week or so. If there are any existing snails, they'll move to the food. Leave it for a week or two for new snails to hatch, and repeat. It's time consuming, but if alum isn't working, this might be worth a try.

Good luck!

 

I'll see what concerns I can address, as there's a lot here:

Keeping 5-6 ramshorns only is impossible. Well, perhaps not impossible, just VERY challenging and time consuming. It would involve searching the entire tank for eggs every week and discarding them. Ramshorns will reproduce - period. If you like having a few, then keep some in the tank, reduce your feeding, and remove excess snails whenever you feel there are too many.

Hornwort isn't as bulletproof as some people might have you believe. I've seen it explode in some tanks, curl up and die in others, and shed their leaves EVERYWHERE in other tanks. It might have something to do with your water's hardness, available nutrients, or a variety of other factors. I couldn't keep it alive in my own tank, so I threw a dying stem into the goldfish tank at work, where it has been extremely successful. So for some settings, it is absolutely an easy plant. In others, it can be a significant challenge.

As for alum dosing for hornwort specifically, I'm really not certain. What might work best it to set up a bowl/bucket with your hornwort, and feed it an algae wafer every week or so. If there are any existing snails, they'll move to the food. Leave it for a week or two for new snails to hatch, and repeat. It's time consuming, but if alum isn't working, this might be worth a try.

Good luck!

Yeah, I too thought maintaining a snail population can be quite challenging. I am thinking of keeping them in a bare bottom tank so that I can scoop them out easily whenever I like to. I have 8g spare tank that is sitting idly empty and upturned in one corner of the room. Can u suggest me some fish for that tank size that does not need any substrate and live plants? Also the tank doesn't have any lid. I can provide caves, artificial plants, houses, pots, etc. that I once used long ago. Can guppies live happily in a zero live plant tank? I have always kept guppies previously but I have always provided atleast a few plants.

I agree with u that water hardness, lighting, nutrients can play a major role for a same plant species. But here the problem is I use same water for both my 5g and 28g tank along with same plant nutrients in the same ratio with the volume of water. The hornwort is thriving in the 5g tank. Sure the lighting is different but then again the hornwort used to thrive in my 28g tank too and like before it's the same water, same plant nutrients in the same ratio, same filter, the lighting has changed but it's the same model. Nothing has changed. Even if I consider that the condition of my tap water has changed over these several months, then also the plants are thriving in my 5g tank where I use the same water. The only thing that has changed - the hornworts were then store bought and now they are alum treated. I would have bought some hornwort from store again but none of my LFS has them now.

Now if I put the hornwort in a bucket like I suggested, won't I have to use a light and plants nutrients too in that bucket to keep the hornwort alive?

The hornwort also has thread algae in it, the snails eat that with pleasure. So will all of the snails leave the thread algae and come down to eat the algae wafer?

Also will any blanched vegetables or fruits work instead of algae wafer like cucumber or squash or any other thing?
Since I have never used algae wafer and they are very expensive here as they are only available here online with delivery charges, it seems too much to buy them just to separate unwanted snails?

 

Oh, absolutely. Throwing blanched veggies will do the trick. I have expired wafers sitting around that I use—I'd rather waste one of those on snails than fresh produce, but I get where your coming from!

Guppies are okay in an unplanted tank, of you're looking to go that route. Personally I prefer to have plants and snails, but I get that some people aren't a huge fan.

I suspect the alum is what's resulting in your shedding hornwort, not a difference in parameters. Have you tried a different type of dip to remove the snails? It's also quite possible that once all the snails are removed, that could be all you need to do - hornwort isn't a great nesting ground for most snails given its narrow leaves, so you may not need to worry about a second generation.

 

Embrace snails and learn to love them